CAIRO, Egypt — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has announced an ambitious project to dig a new canal parallel to the Suez Canal to develop and stimulate international maritime traffic through the area. Questions have been raised, however, about the Egyptian government’s ability to complete the job in only one year, as well as the economic feasibility of the project, since the state has been suffering for three years from a financial and economic crisis affecting all state institutions and sectors.

The new canal, which Sisi announced during a ceremony held Aug. 5 and assigned to the armed forces, is expected to be 72 kilometers (44.7 miles) long, and the project will involve 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) of dry digging and 37 kilometers (23 miles) of expansion and deep digging. The estimated cost is $4 billion under the purview of the Suez Canal Corridor Development Project. The government is depending heavily on the project to jump-start Egypt's sagging economy.

The first challenges of this massive undertaking have already appeared, namely, problems during drilling. In particular, water was found at the drilling sites, which may require a greater financial input for dredging. This issue is compounded by the presidentially declared one-year deadline to complete the drilling and send the first vessel through the new canal.

Haitham Awad, an engineering professor at Alexandria University, told Al-Monitor that costs are likely to skyrocket: “The cost of drilling underwater will exceed 10 times the cost of drilling in dry lands. The drilling site chosen was 400 meters from the Suez Canal, but it would have been better to choose a site between 8 and 10 kilometers (5 to 6.2 miles) away from the old canal.”